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The Movie Murder that No One Noticed
|solved_in = |solved_by = Houtarou Oreki |summary = Find a culprit to finish the class 2-F's film }} Before the start of the Kamiyama High School Festival, the Classics Club is summoned by Class 2-F's Fuyumi Irisu to review an amateur film created by her class for the event. What seems like an exclusive preview to a film rife with awkward acting, poor script and a non-existent ending becomes a test of Houtarou Oreki's character as an "energy-saving" person and a talented member of the Classic Literature Club. Background In preparation for the upcoming Kamiyama High School Festival, Class 2-F decided to make an amateur movie shot in a nondescript location during summer vacation. The script was written by Mayu Hongou, and the story involves a group of five teenagers traveling into an abandoned theater building, where one of them would be murdered in a mysterious fashion. For details beyond the control of the staff of the film, the movie's script was left incomplete. During a conversation in the school's own BBS website, Fuyumi Irisu, who became the supervisor for the movie project, found out about the case involving the Hyouka anthology (see The Origins of Hyouka) and this becomes the impetus for Irisu to invite the Classics Club to be involved in another case through its president, Eru Chitanda. Progress The Exclusive Pre-Screening The Classics Club agrees to attend the exclusive pre-screening for Class 2-F's movie, and they are welcomed by Fuyumi Irisu, who prepares the showing before leaving momentarily. Although Houtarou Oreki voiced out his lack of interest in watching a film that is impossible to redo after having its flaws noticed, he pushed through. The movie stars Midori Yamanishi, Mamiko Senoue, Takeo Katsuta, Yuri Kounosu and Takeo Kaitou, and it tells of a group of teenagers who ended up taking refuge in an abandoned theater building. During their search for a viable place to rest, the five split up and searched in different parts of the building. Minutes later, they regroup, only to find out that Kaitou hasn't returned. Upon retracing his steps, they find the motionless corpse of Kaitou inside a room at the far end of the theater's right wing, with his dismembered hand nearby. The movie ends abruptly with the only window in the room opened to revealed a grassy field and the passageway to the stage blocked off by debris. After the movie ends, Fuyumi asks for the opinions of the Classics Club about the film. As she expected, the movie is panned for lacking polish and a proper ending. According to Fuyumi, despite being able to follow the filming schedule, the film had problems with the script due to the scriptwriter Mayu Hongou falling ill, cutting the script short. However, she expects that the mystery in the film can be solved since she thinks that Mayu followed the basic guidelines on writing a mystery (see Knox's Commandments, Raymond Chandler's Laws of Mystery, and the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories by S.S. Van Dine). That said, when pushed for the culprit in the story, the club turns to Houtarou, who quickly showed disinterest in solving the case. Fuyumi took no effort in persuading the Classics Club to take on the challenge, and this troubles Eru, who refuses to leave the movie without a sound conclusion. Houtarou also understands Eru's worries, but he does not want to lead the case as detectives to the case. Irisu agrees on a compromise; the Classics Club will serve only as "observers" while "amateur detectives" from the class will handle the case. Houtarou eventually gives in to her offer. Meeting the Amateur Detectives The day after that, The Classics Club met Eba Kurako, Hongou's best friend who voluntereed to escort them to the classroom where they'll meet the three amateur detectives that Fuyumi mentioned before. The first one was Nakajou Junya, the assistant director of the movie project. He has a perspective that movies are supposed to excite the audience so the tricks of the mystery movie doesn't matter that much. Nakajou theorized that the culprit entered the locked room from the window and escaped from there too. And to explain why there were no traces on anyone used the window, he believed Hongou inspected the house in May where there weren't any summer grass near the window and believed it was possible to use the trick unlike in the movie where summer grass grow near the window. But, Houtarou noticed the contradiction within Nakajou's theory and that is from the culprit's perspective, the trick would risked the culprit to being seen by the other characters After that, Eba confronted them and asked about Nakajou's theory and they replied it's rejected and Houtarou also asked for a copy of Hongou's script. The next one was the propmaster, Haba Tomohiro. Hongou is implied to be a beginner in mystery genre and she was only able to read Sherlock Holmes' books in one night for materials. Chitanda found a slip of note from one of the books' pages and another one in another book. The notes were filled with titles of Sherlock Holmes' stories and each of them are marked with X and O. Houtarou believed them as list of ideas for usable tricks. Haba then started explaining his theory and took out a map of the house with markings in them. He believed the murder wasn't planned but the culprit took advantage of the circumstances to commit the crime. And in addition Hongou asked him to prepare a rope which makes him believed Kounosu is the culprit. Being a member of the Rock Climbing Club, She climbed down from the second floor window to enter the room from the window and escaped with the same route after killing him. Houtarou then asked him whether Hongou asked for something else besides the rope. And Haba mentioned she also asked for a small supply of fake blood and Haba even prepared more than she asked. Satoshi and Mayaka seems to agree with Haba's theory but Chitanda strongly denied it and Houtarou also denied it since Haba haven't watched the video. His theory contradicted with the video because the window can't be opened easily, so the culprit wouldn't be able to enter the room without being noticed. After that, Eba came and they informed her that Haba's theory is rejected and she also gave them a copy of Hongou's script which everyone looked at. And her script confirmed that she thought things through including all the things they deduced so far. Last one is Sawakiguchi Misaki, the publicity manager. From her, they found out that the script was decided by majority vote. Sawakiguchi started explaining her theory. In her perspective, Mystery movies are ones that blended with horror settings to its story. She believed there's supposed to be a seventh character and there's also a fact that Hongou was looking for another actor besides the other six. The seventh character would be a mysterious killer that will continuously kill the remaining cast and after a certain amount of people have been killed, the remaining survirvors, a couple would kill the killer at the climax and the movie ended with a happy ending. But, Chintada who is drunk of Whiskey Bon Bon strongly denied the theory and then she fell asleep. Houtarou also denied Sawakiguchi's theory since if Hongou did planned for horror setting in the middle of the story she would have planned the props for it based on how detailed her script was and Hongou asked Haba to prepare a small amount of fake blood which means she didn't planned for a large amount of death. They then told Eba that Sawakiguchi's theory is rejected. After that, Houtarou met Fuyumi on his way home and she invited him for some tea. And then, she asked about the amateur detectives' theories and Houtarou replied that none of the them worked. And then, she asked what was wrong with their theories. Houtarou then explained all the contradictions of each theories and said all of them was rejected by him. She expected Houtarou rejected them despite not interested in this case previously. She knew from the start that those three can't solve the mystery. And finally, she revealed that she heard from Chitanda, someone outside the school, and Tougaito Masashi about Houtarou and his amazing deductive reasoning skill. And so, she enlisted The Classics Club help to get Houtarou's help. She believed Houtarou is talented and asked him once again to help them with the movie. Houtarou denied of having a talent and just being lucky. And then, Fuyumi told him about a small story of a bench member of the Track team. This member practised day after day to become a regular on the team, yet she wasn't able to since there were so many more talented members. There was even one member who was called a prodigy, and her skills compared to the bench member's skills was like that of heaven and earth. She even won an MVP medal for her value to the team, and when interviewed about how she became this good, she simply answered "I was just lucky". Fuyumi asks Houtarou for his opinion on how hurt the bench member was upon hearing this comment. And then, she stated that every individual must be aware of themselves, if not, those who watch them would feel like fools. And the next day, Houtarou went to school with Satoshi determined to solve the mystery. When they arrived at the clubroom, Chitanda couldn't come after getting drunk yesterday and so the three of them proceed rewatching the video. They noticed the movie was boring due to a bad camerawork where there are a lot of scenes that could be taken much better. Satoshi was dragged out the clubroom since he needs to take supplemental lessons but before that, he gave his notebook to Houtarou. And after that, Mayaka also leave for library duty. After a moment of thinking and reviewing at the video and Satoshi's notes, Houtarou figured it out. Houtarou then called Fuyumi. He started explaining his deduction. He deduced that the culprit is a seventh character which is the cameraman. By treating the cameraman as a character all the other facts like the one holding the flashlight, the bad camerawork and the fact the scenes were recorded in one perspective could be explained. And in the movie the scene fade to black right after the other characters left the lobby. In other words, The cameraman waited until everyone left the lobby, stopped the camera, then took the master key at the office and then kill Kaitou. After that, they used the master key to locked the room then waited for everyone to return to the lobby. Fuyumi then asked Houtarou two question. First, if Houtarou's conclusion is right, wouldn't it be weird to have an actor who doesn't speak or not even spoken to? Houtarou believed that the actor are supposed to not speak at all to make him have a motive since he is ignored by the other casts. Second, if Houtarou's conclusion is right, wouldn't the other characters reach the same conclusion immediately and suspected the seventh character as the culprit? or wouldn't the culprit's actions will be seen by the others and the other characters figured out the culprit's identity immediately as well?. Houtarou answered that it doesn't matter if anyone saw who exactly did it as long as the movie could make the viewers think about the mystery which is also why there isn't a detective in the story since the culprit is obvious. Fuyumi accepted Houtarou's deduction and then, she complimented his amazing skills and thanked him for his help. Fuyumi even allowed him to give the movie a title. And Houtarou named the movie with the title " The Biggest Blind Spot of All" and Fuyumi complimented it as a good title. Conclusion of One After the premiere of the movie, Mayaka then confronted Houtarou and noticed that they didn't used any rope in the story. Houtarou is surprised hearing that but he still defended that the rope isn't necessary but Mayaka is insistent that it's necessary since Hongou was very insistent about the rope but looking at Houtarou, she doesn't want to complicate things and she complimented his idea to be very good although it doesn't matched the clues they have before she left. Houtarou was then confronted by Satoshi who wants to talk about the movie earlier. Satoshi then said that the movie isn't what Hongou wanted it to be. Satoshi then explained that Houtaro's theory uses narrative tricks which is a technique used to trick the readers from how the story is presented. But, Hongou who is a beginner in mystery only read Sherlock Holmes' stories that doesn't use narrative tricks at all. Narrative tricks became more common at the age of Agatha Christie and Satoshi believed she isn't a fan of Agatha Christie. But, Houtarou reasoned with him that Hongou could've read a book that uses narrative tricks or perhaps watched a movie with the same trick. Then, Satoshi asked him if he really think so. Satoshi then said if he really think so then he is okay with it before he went home. Finally, Houtarou met Chitanda in front of the school entrance and she told him while walking together that the movie is wrong and so Houtarou ask her why. Then, after they sit near a river, Chitanda explained that she believed that Hongou had an ending for the script in the beginning but she didn't tell anyone about it. If she really was too sick to tell them, her best friend, Eba wouldn't forgive the others and volunteer to escort them before. And everyone in her class are good people, so she could tell them about it if that's how she wanted it to be and no one would criticized her for a bad script. But, she didn't which brings the question what drives her into a corner which makes Chitanda curious. Houtarou became very frustrated that not only he is wrong completely, he disregarded Hongou's feelings for her script and replaced it with his false theory. But he still can't figured out what did he get wrong. At his room, he decided to forget it since the movie is finished and it would be a waste of energy to think about it but Houtarou still can't get it out of his mind. He started looking up at a book about tarot cards and remembered that Satoshi mentioned tarot cards that represented everyone at The Classics Club in one of their previous conversation. From there, Houtaro looked at the Strength that represent him as someone who showcases his full potential when controlled by women which is a mockery from Satoshi. Houtarou believed it to be some kind of a hint from Satoshi and then he said something that made him figured it out. The next day, Houtarou confronted Fuyumi and she invited him to their celebration party in Saturday which Houtarou declined and wished to talk to her privately at the same tea shop where they talked before. Houtarou stated that the last time they were there Fuyumi told Houtarou that he has a talent and then asked what was it. Fuyumi was about to answer deduction skill but Houtarou replied she's wrong. Houtarou then stated that he wasn't the detective but the mystery writer. Fuyumi then asked him what gave it away. Houtarou then explained that Hongou left notes inside the books she read for materials which he believed at first a list of ideas for usable tricks but from asking Satoshi he found out that the ones marked with O's are stories where the characters lived while the ones marked with X's are ones where they died which concluded that Hongou doesn't really care about the tricks and prefer a happy ending particularly where no one died. And from the results of the poll he got, Hongou entered a vote for zero death for the movie which also means Hongou would write a script where no one died. But Hongou wasn't with them for the shooting, and so, the class went out of control and even ad libbed the script a lot including Kaitou being dead despite her script never implied that Kaitou actually died. Houtarou then said that what he's going to say from now on is a speculation with no proofs. Houtarou then explained Hongou saw that the movie was wrong and can't bring herself to asked the other to re-film it since she felt guilty for ignoring the results of the poll. But then, Fuyumi came to her and asked her to feign illness and left the script unfinished. And then, she asked the other classmates for their theories about the movie to write a new script even involved The Classics Club since their theories wouldn't work at all. ilIn other words, Fuyumi changed their perspectives of writing a whole new script into completing Hongou's script and used Houtarou's theories to replace Hongou's script in a way that wouldn't hurt her. Conclusions One day at the clubroom, Houtarou is spacing out at the window until Chitanda asked him what was Hongou's original script is supposed to be. Then, he explained that the culprit would be Kounosu and since she is a member of the rock climbing club, she would use a rope to climb down from the second floor into a window from one of the empty room at the right side of the first floor. Once she climbed down, she would attack Kaitou but it won't kill him. And then, she would climb back to the second floor and meet up with the others at the lobby. But Chitanda wonders about the seventh actor Hongou was looking for. But Houtarou answered that the seventh actor already appeared in the incomplete movie as the narrator. Chitanda then asked why Kaitou's room was locked which Houtarou answered he entered the room and locked the room with his key but he doesn't know the reason. But then, Chitanda claimed to have understand Hongou a little better and have an idea what happened. She believed after Kounosu attacked Kaitou, Kaitou then asked her reason for attacking him after that he would cover for her by hiding in a room and collapsed there. But she can't figured out how he would explain his injury and then Houtarou added that there's broken glass in the room and explained that he could say that he fell and cut himself. And then, Houtarou claimed that they'll never know why Kounosu attacked Kaitou and why he forgive her unless Hongou reveals it. And, Chitanda agreed with him that it couldn't be helped despite how curious she is. References Category:Mysteries